


May I suggest something?

by Sergeant



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn - Timothy Zahn
Genre: Gen, Inspection, just a day at the Academy, please throw this in garbage after reading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-08 13:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11647917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sergeant/pseuds/Sergeant
Summary: There is an inspection at the Academy. Eli Vanto is trying to keep a low profile, but of course, Thrawn has another idea and it’s up to Eli to save the day.





	1. You can run and you can hide

 “How exactly does the ‘inspection’ proceed?” Thrawn asked.

He and Eli Vanto were walking through the main building of the barracks to another lecture they had in their program.

“Well, usually a high ranking officer comes to the base officially and spends a day or so in it. The commanding officer accompanies them and shows them how perfect everything is.”

“Nothing is ever completely perfect.” Thrawn said thoughtfully.

“No, of course not. Only when there is an inspection.” Eli replied.

“How is that possible?”

Eli sighed. _His jaw was tense, maybe he was tired._

“Everyone has to do their best and trust me, no one will make any mistake or cause a problem during an inspection.”

“So if there is no inspection the people don’t have to work hard and mistakes are tolerated?” Thrawn asked.

“No, but it’s just much worse during inspection. If the officer finds any imperfection, the whole base will be affected by it and you know how it goes in the army.” Eli laughed shortly. _His face was relaxed once again, his eyes darted to the side. Perhaps he was remembering something._

“I do not understand what you mean.”

“If the inspecting officer finds something out and reports it, then the command comes here, yells at the officer in charge, which will make him angry. Then he will yell at his subordinates, who will then be also angry and yell at their subordinates. And then, in the receiving end – there is us.” Eli listed.

“So, no problems today means everyone will be happy.” Eli summed up and wondered how much different the Chiss army was, if Thrawn didn’t understand this concept.

“That is very stupid.” Thrawn commented, “The inspection should learn about problems that the base has, so they could be solved and not slow the army down.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works here.” Eli shook his head. _His eyebrows furrowed in thoughts._

“Are there any regulations about what to do if we meet the officer?”

“Just salute and don’t speak.” Eli explained and hoped that the Chiss won’t find any time between the lectures and studying to meet the officer to give him his own lecture about functioning of the base.

Especially as Eli knew, that the lecture would more likely be a presentation of a to-do list instead of polite and moderate suggestions, which would make things even worse.

“Am I not allowed to speak? What if I could provide him with some…” Thrawn thought for a moment and then added in Sy Bisti, “Lutunoan.”

“Suggestions.” Eli said slowly. _Here we go_ , he said to himself sarcastically.

“Suggestions.” Thrawn repeated.

“That is not a good idea. These people don’t like to be told how to do their jobs, you should let it go.” Eli tried to persuade Thrawn. He didn’t really want to tell him that it was a terrible idea especially because Thrawn was alien.

“How can anything be changed for the better then?” Thrawn required.

“Maybe you could give it to commandant Deenlark tomorrow.” Eli suggested.

“I suppose that could work.” Thrawn admitted.

For a while they walked in silence, Thrawn thinking about his suggestions, Eli planning not to let the Chiss anywhere near the officer.

A cadet at the end of the corridor suddenly drew Eli’s attention. Her expression changed to surprise, millisecond of panic and then to neutral. She quickly snapped to attention and saluted.

_Oh no, that must be the officer,_ Eli thought. The cadet wouldn’t be surprised if she saw an officer who was stationed at the Academy.

Thrawn noticed that as well and started walking slightly faster.

_Oh no,_ Eli thought again. He looked around in panic.

“Follow me.” Eli whispered and grabbed Thrawn by the arm. The alien frowned at the contact and opened his mouth to protest.

“Not now, just…” Eli pulled Thrawn with him back through the corridor and then turned to walk through a door.

Thrawn was faintly resisting, clearly he didn’t like to be moved like this, but trusting his aide enough not to do anything stupid. “Cadet Vanto…”

His voice carried disapproval.

“Yeah, I know, but come on.” Eli silenced him by whispering again.

They walked through the door and Thrawn noted that in his aggravation he didn’t even notice where the man was taking him.

He quickly turned around to look at the sign at the last moment, but Eli pulled him inside, so he only sighted the first letter on the label. His lack of observation unsettled him enough for Eli to pull him in the room and through another door without much protest.

There they finally stopped.

“Why did you that, cadet Vanto?” Thrawn asked in a deep threatening voice.

Eli finally looked at the Chiss and smiled apologetically. “Sorry. Excuse me…” Eli squeezed around Thrawn, closed the door behind them and then locked it.

Thrawn looked around in the confined space. “Why are we hiding in the refresher?”

Eli tittered nervously. It was quite usual at Eli’s previous Academy that the cadets were hiding if some officer was passing so they wouldn’t have to meet them, even though the meeting itself only consisted of saluting and then going on their way.

So many things can go wrong during this short encounter that it’s not worth risking. A stain on a uniform? Problem. Boots not shiny enough? Problem. Wearing a cap at an angle? Problem.

And Force forbid that the officer would look for someone to help them with something.

Eli quickly checked Thrawn out, but his uniform was in a perfect condition as always. The Chiss frowned at him again.

Eli looked down at himself. His uniform was acceptable enough. Then he realized they were indoors, so he took off his cap.

“Well…” Eli started, “the thing is…”

“Explain why you did this.” Thrawn interrupted his blabbering. _Eli looked down for a second then his eyes widened as he realized something._

“Okay. I panicked. We always avoided high ranking officers at the Academy so we wouldn’t get in trouble.”

“First, that is a lie. Second, I told you I wanted to meet them. I’m leaving.” Thrawn placed his hand on Eli’s shoulder and pushed him.

Eli leaned against the door and held out his arms to the side. “It was not a lie.”

“Not completely.” He added when the Chiss looked at him again.

“I just don’t think we should interfere.” _He looked sad and embarrassed._

“Why?” Thrawn pressed for an answer.

To Thrawn’s surprise, Eli looked at him desperately, searching for words with not much success. _He was red from embarrassment, his eyes restless and he looked more like an animal in a corner._

“As I said, they don’t like to be told what to do.” He offered weakly.

“Either tell me the truth, or let me go.” The Chiss looked at him sternly.

Eli wished he was somewhere else, because the red glowing eyes suddenly looked very scary. _Why are the walls so close?_ Eli wanted to take a step back, but he was already pressed against the door.

And Thrawn was too close to him.

“Okay, fine. You win, go talk to the officer.” Eli raised his hands in surrender and then turned to unlock the door. There was no way he would be explaining Thrawn why he should keep his head down.

So far the alien thought people were cautious around him because they’d never seen one of his kind and that these feeling will soon disappear.

The lock clicked and Eli carefully opened the door.

“Wait.” Thrawn barked and slammed the door closed, keeping his hand on it.

Eli flinched in surprise, “What are you doing?”

He turned around to face the Chiss, who was staring at him.

“I want to know the truth.”

“The truth is that we shouldn’t interfere.” Eli stated definitely.

“Why?”

“It’s just…” Eli took a breath but couldn’t find any words. “I don’t know. It’s nothing.” _His eyes were restless and showed discomfort._

“Yes, you do know. Tell me.” The Chiss pressed.

“Um…” Eli subconsciously looked for a way to escape, but there was none. Thrawn still had his hand placed at the doorframe, keeping Eli effectively trapped.

“Ever heard of a thing called ‘personal space’?” Eli babbled.

“I don’t think I have to remind you who pulled us to the refresher.” Thrawn replied without moving.

“Right… my bad.” Eli laughed nervously. _Why did it feel like they were there forever?_

Eli’s eyes widened in sudden realization, “Thrawn! We have to go, we have the lecture!”

“Perhaps that will motivate you to talk.” The alien just stared at Eli expressionlessly like he didn’t care about being late.

“We don’t have time for this, come on.” Eli pulled at Thrawn’s arm tentatively, but he wouldn’t move.

“Okay. I promise I’ll tell you when we’re back in our room, right? If you promise me you won’t talk to the officer.”

Thrawn thought about it for a second and then nodded, “Deal. Now let’s go, we have approximately three minutes to get there in time.”

Eli looked at his comlink sceptically but whistled silently in astonishment because Thrawn estimated the time perfectly.

“How did you know?” Eli asked.

“No time to explain.” Thrawn smirked and finally opened the door.


	2. Polite suggestions

The day was so exhausting that even though Eli was preparing what to say he just collapsed on his bed when they finally got to their room. Thrawn silently put down few books he was carrying and sat down.

Eli turned around and pulled his knees to his chest and tried to untie his shoes in this rather complicated way. He stopped when he noticed Thrawn was watching him.

“What? The only reason why I’d get up now is to get some food.” Eli mumbled and kicked his shoes down.

“I think you should also study.” The alien reminded him kindly after giving him a disapproving look about the ditched shoes.

“Yeah, I will.” Eli sighed.

“But we should talk first.” Thrawn reminded him as well.

“Fine.” Eli sat on the bed and crossed his legs.

“What do you want to know?” Eli asked to buy himself few more seconds before confronting Thrawn.

“We both know answer for that question.” Thrawn said impatiently.

Eli sighed again. “Okay. Do you want me to be completely blunt or sugarcoat it for you?”

“Sugarcoat?” Thrawn repeated the word in question.

“It means to say something bad while using nicer words so it doesn’t sound bad in the end.” Eli explained.

“Oh. No, just say it.”

“You are an alien.” Eli said silently.

“Yes, I’m quite aware of that.”

“Did you notice you are basically the only alien in the navy?”

“I suppose so.” Thrawn frowned for a moment and Eli saw he was lost in thoughts. _I’m now in the same position that Car’das was – too different to be seen as trustworthy._

“I understand now. Perhaps when I have a higher rank others will see I can be trusted.”

“Maybe. But it will be difficult. Many people see… anyone who is not human…differently.”

“How differently?” Thrawn asked with interest.

“Mostly in a bad way.” Eli looked down, unable to look Thrawn in the eyes. “Like the humans were superior.”

When Eli said that and saw Thrawn didn’t look offended, he blurted out other thoughts.

“And not only that. The Emperor _himself_ chose you, you have years of experience and you know basically everything… Seriously, you need to tell me how you can tell the exact time…”

Thrawn raised his eyebrows and his look stopped Eli’s train of thought.

“Right, sorry. You already know how Deenlark reacted when he had to admit us to the Academy. It will be the same and probably even worse with others. They don’t trust you but can’t really do much because they can’t go against the Emperor.”

“I understand, but that still shouldn’t make any difference if my ideas are good.”

“Some people would consider it, but some are basically just egoistic and stubborn snobs with powerful friends. And those would tear you to pieces for as much as voicing a different opinion.”

“I assume commandant Deenlark belongs to the latter category then.”

“Welcome to Coruscant,” Eli snorted ironically and added suddenly in a serious tone: “Don’t say that anywhere.”

“Why? ‘Welcome to Coruscant’ seemed like a nice phrase, if you say it politely.” Thrawn replied.

“You know what I meant.” Eli groaned and lied back on bed, wondering whether he was to blame for teaching Thrawn sarcasm or if the Chiss already knew it.

Thrawn sat down and started typing something while Eli thought of stuff he still had to do before going to sleep. The comfortable silence dragged out so Eli’s mind wandered back to the conversation and cringing about some of his answers. Well, all in all it didn’t go bad, but it certainly could’ve been smoother.

“Perhaps this might be a better solution.” Thrawn said eventually.

Eli wanted to ask what he meant, but his datapad beeped, so he reached to his table behind him to grab it.

 _Weird._ There was a new message from Thrawn. Eli looked at him questioningly, but the Chiss didn’t say anything and just waited for the man to read whatever he sent him.

Eli looked at the text and quickly went through the main bullet points. It took all his will power not to roll his eyes.

“Yeah, you definitely need to change the language. If you want to present this, it has to be…” Eli frowned and searched for the best adjective.

“What?” Thrawn asked.

“I’d say _neutral_. And polite.”

“Neutral?”

Eli looked at Thrawn and shook his head. “Don’t even ask. I don’t really know how to explain that. I’ll rewrite it and show you.”

“Thank you. I think it would also be more acceptable if you present it to commandant Deenlark.”

Eli looked up in shock. “Me? This?”

“Yes.”

“But…” Eli wanted to protest, but in the end came to a conclusion that Thrawn was right. If he wanted his ideas to be at least considered by the commander, giving them to Eli was his best option.

“Okay. I’ll do it.” This time he rolled his eyes when Thrawn gave him one of his rare smiles.

…

…

“Commandant Deenlark, cadet Vanto. May I speak to you?” Eli presented himself.

“You may.”

Eli entered Deenlark’s office and closed the door behind him.

“Sir, I would like to submit a proposal about raising the efficiency of the base functioning.”

The commandant lifted an eyebrow and kept Eli waiting in attention for a while.

“Very well, send it to me.” He said in the end.

Eli took out his datapad and quickly sent the file which he had already prepared beforehand. Then he stood to attention again.

Deenlark opened the document on a holoprojector and quickly scanned through it. Then he looked at Eli questioningly.

“And this was _your_ idea, cadet?” The commandant sneered.

Eli held his breath. “Yes, sir.” He replied weakly, but his dismayed expression gave him away.

“It was lieutenant Thrawn’s idea, wasn’t it?”

Eli looked away. “Yes, sir.”

Deenlark shook his head slowly then he laughed shortly. “You need to learn how to lie, cadet.”

“Yes, sir.”

Deenlark closed the file and opened the options about it on the holoprojector, so Eli would see his actions.

Then he theatrically selected the option Delete.

_Of course. Why did I think he would read it?_

“Anything else, cadet?”

At this point Eli thought the commander was mocking him.

“No, sir. Permission to leave?”

“Granted.”

…

…

Eli walked slowly back to his room with mixed feelings. The commandant didn’t even give it a chance, but at least it looked like he wasn’t going to mention the incident in the future.

When Eli opened the door the Chiss welcomed him by jumping from his seat and making few steps towards him in expectations.

“Cadet Vanto.” Thrawn’s voice was stoic and deep as usual, but Eli noticed he talked faster.

“Hey.” He replied silently.

“What did commandant Deenlark say? Did he read it?”

Eli shrugged. “He just looked over it when I was there.”

“And what did he say?” Thrawn asked again and followed Eli who decided to sit at the table.

“He didn’t say much.” Eli put his datapad down and looked at Thrawn. Even though the Chiss’ face didn’t show any emotion, he was leaning towards Eli and staring at him in what Eli guessed was a pure anticipation.

The man sat back to appear more casual and smiled slightly. “He’ll read it when he has time.”

“I’m sure he won’t be disappointed.” Thrawn nodded.

“But don’t expect much from it.” Eli tried to reduce Thrawn’s hidden excitement. “Even when he decides to implement any of your ideas, changes take lots of time so we won’t be here for it.”

The more Eli talked and reasoned, the easier the words rolled off his tongue.

“That does not matter.”

Eli hummed in response, got up and walked to his locker.

“If you’re looking for the biscuits, I’m afraid you ate all of them already.”

“Seriously, how…?” Eli turned to the Chiss and just stared at him, waiting for an answer.

“You always go search your locker when you’re looking for something to eat.” Thrawn shrugged.

“That is not true.” Eli denied promptly. “There are lots of other things I could be getting from it.”

“Name one.” The Chiss challenged him.

“Ehm.” Eli looked into the locker. Even though he was glad Thrawn got distracted from the original topic, it didn’t mean the man was going to let him win.

“Clothes. Maybe I wanted to change into something more comfortable.” Eli argued.

“Yes, but that is already lying on your bed.” Thrawn gestured towards it.

“Oh.” Eli looked into the locker again, but despite it being filled with various items, he couldn’t really come up with anything else.

“Whatever.” He said eventually and returned to the table.

Without any comments, Thrawn pulled out a small sack from his pocket and opened it.

Eli laughed and took one sweet out of it.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this was supposed to be a short funny one-shot, I don’t know what happened to it. And I also feel terrible for Thrawn, because Eli lied to him and he gave him a cookie in the end xD which btw. is something that just happened, I didn’t plan it…  
> Does it sometimes happen to you, that you want to write something, but suddenly the characters do something different basically on their own and you just stare at what you wrote with a feeling that it was not supposed to happen and you planned something different? xD


End file.
